Bold Resource: Fat is Not a Violation

It’s not often we feel the need to write on weekends (well, yes, we post on weekends, but everything has been typically written out during that Friday… before our merlot… eh…. sometimes during our merlot). But, this is too far too important to wait for Monday and we need to talk to you about it now!

On September 27th, Xavier and Hostetler Rosen were expressing their frustration after seeing a post from Katana Fatale that showed a side by side of her picture that Instagram deleted for “violating their guidelines” and a similarly revealing pic of Kim K with 2 million likes. Hmmm… that’s interesting!

“We’ve seen this happen countless times, deleted photos, shadow banning & deactivated accounts. All that for photos that show fat and large bodies in various states of undress but still within the guidelines Instagram set. While photos of straight sized bodies that are even more revealing and actually do violate Instagram guidelines are still up, garnering likes & shares.” – Sarah Hostetler Rosen

This has been spoken about so many times within our publication. While we love love love Instagram for all of the friends we’ve made and stories we’ve had a chance to write because of those friends, we’ve also discussed how they really are not fair to women in the plus universe at all!

“We are tired of being discriminated against. Fat hatred, fatphobia, fat discrimination – whatever you want to call it – is the last socially acceptable form of prejudice.” – Sarah Hostetler Rosen

Crystal Woods, a plus model, has had to close her account because even non-Instagram users think it offensive.

Some huge names like Crystal McBooty, Carina Shero, and even London Andrews have “violated” Instagram’s guidelines, which is absurd. Instagram has never acknowledged this bias or their reasoning for deleting non-violating photos. Photos of straight size women hardly get taken down. What’s worse is that plus models are often reported by men who ask them for their time or on dates. And, when they deny them, men tend to report their accounts. For SOME reason, the reports are taken seriously! So, Lou and Sarah wanted to bring this topic to the forefront so Instagram hopefully couldn’t ignore the plus universe any longer.

“We discussed a hashtag to use, I suggested #fatisnotaviolation, Lou quickly agreed and we were off. I wrote up a doubly agreed upon post, she made a graphic with the posts text that definitely made it more aesthetically pleasing and we both started to spread the word by posting, sharing & messaging fat positive & body positive accounts we admire.” – Sarah Hostetler Rosen

Soon after they noticed the graphic shares picking up, thjey created a dedicated account, @fatisnotaviolation. We were one of the first to use it and we loved it! So, as the word got around the community, they also became more and more excited that this movement and its supporters may finally be what forces Instagram to acknowledge their bias against fat bodies.

“We are both very grateful and honored by the support we’ve received, and want to thank all those who participated in the first #fatisnotaviolationfriday.” – Sarah Hostetler Rosen

A quote from Lou Xavier:

“I know for me it was that I saw yet another fat woman have her photo removed that contained not a single thing that IG lists in their reasons for deletion. And I was upset and had had enough. Sarah responded about my instastory and she decided that we should do something big about it.”

Sin City Marie, Las Vegas

Well, you know we are all over this thing! In fact, we’ve been collecting photos to use on this post and on our Instagram account all day. So, get ready to get uncomfortable, haters, because FAT IS NOT A VIOLATION! Be Bold!